Kenya: Opposition Calls For Raila Odinga To Be “Declared Winner”

While the chairman of the Kenyan Independent Electoral Commission announced on Thursday (August 10th) that the final results of Tuesday’s ballot will not be known until Friday afternoon, the opposition demands that Raila Odinga be declared the winner. Yesterday, clashes erupted and caused at least four deaths in the country.

“We demand that the President of the IEBC (Independent Electoral Commission) announce immediately the results and declare Raila Amolo Odinga as duly elected president of Kenya,” said Musalia Mudavadi, one of the opposition leaders gathered In the NASA coalition behind Raila Odinga’s candidacy. A demand was made at a press conference held at 1400 GMT on Thursday at which Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate for outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, was also present.

The official results are not yet known for the elections held on Tuesday 8 August, but the results still provisional give Uhuru Kenyatta, the outgoing president, at the head of the votes cast.

Uhuru Kenyatta is credited with 54.24% of the votes, and Raila Odinga 44.88%, according to the still provisional results, available on the site of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEBC). These results, still provisional and unofficial, relate to the 98.42% of offices’ electronic lifts (at 14.10 TU).

The electronic results count is still in progress. The Electoral Commission takes the time to compare these figures with those recorded on all the physical reports, still in transit, noted the special correspondent of RFI in Nairobi, Sébastien Nemeth.

No official results before Friday

Wafula Chebukati, IEBC President, announced that the final results will not be known until Friday, August 11, at midday. ” We expect all the results of our presidential agents to reach the national counting center by tomorrow [Friday] noon, ” said the IEBC president. ” We call on all parties to continue to exercise restraint at these crucial moments,” he said.

Raila Odinga, opposition candidate to outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta, Wednesday denounced the results, referring to massive fraud and claiming that the counting system had been the target of computer piracy. The IEBC president confirmed that the computer servers had suffered attacks, but that they had failed. He also promised transparency in the investigation of these allegations.

At least four dead in the country

On Wednesday, following Raila Odinga’s intervention, clashes erupted in several parts of the country, particularly in the poor neighborhood of Mathare in Nairobi and in the town of Kisumu, Raila Odinga stronghold.

They fired at us negligently, with live ammunition, because of our gathering and because we are demanding respect for our rights. They are our friends, our brothers. Let us stop the massacres.

Clashes between pro-Odinga and police in Mathare

The record is at least four people killed in clashes between supporters of Raila Odinga and security forces. Two people were killed in Mathare, a slum in Nairobi, and two others in Tana River County, in the southeast of the country. A man was also reportedly killed in Kisii, according to several Kenyan media, but the information was not confirmed by the authorities.

Call for calm for international observers

At the same time, observers began to give their conclusions. There are over 5,000 voters, deployed under the aegis of the African Union, the European Union, the Commonwealth, or NGOs. All called for calm and patience, calling for “fair play” losers. John Kerry, former US Secretary of State and former US President George W. Bush, has even cited his own experience as an example: ” I lost a presidential election to a state near, I know That it is only to lose. ”

” If there are any disputes, they must follow the legal way before the judges, ” said former Senegalese Prime Minister Aminata Touré, on behalf of the Carter Center. The European Union’s observation mission, headed by Marietje Schaake of the Netherlands, said on Thursday morning that it had observed ” no signs of centralized or localized manipulation “. ” Any irregularity or dispute about the process and the results must be the subject of petitions before the courts “, insisted the head of the EU mission.